Schools, Local Authorities (LAs), the Department for Education (DfE) and other educational bodies that process personal data about pupils and staff are required by the Data Protection Act (1998) to issue a Notice to parents/pupils and staff to inform them of the purposes for which that personal data may be held and used.

The Information Commissioner has recommended that the term ‘Fair Processing Notice’ is to be replaced by ‘Privacy Notice’, and the DfE is adopting this approach in its data collections from now on, and has reviewed the whole process of issuing Privacy Notices.

In the past, the Fair Processing Notice has included the use of school information made available by the LA or the DfE. The new process will mean much simpler Privacy Notices, where details of any organisations with which the LA and DfE share data are contained on the LA and DfE websites, with links from the Privacy Notices. This means that Privacy Notices do not need reissuing on an annual basis. The aim is to make the Privacy Notices issued to parents/pupils and staff general and constant. Any changes to the details of organisations with which school or LA data is shared can be updated on the LA and DfE websites.

The new approach is that a single, short and easily understandable Privacy Notice can be provided to parents, pupils and staff of the school. This will not require annual revisions.

Please follow the link below for a copy of Primrose Lane’s Privacy Notice.